A Work of Artifice

This poem kind of looks at life with a different perspective. Instead of this tree growing strong and monstrous, the owner decides to keep it small and cozy, domestic and weak. The reader would think that a bigger tree would have more to offer such as shade and maybe a place for an animal to live. When it talks about bound feet and crippled brains and the hair in curlers, the poet is relating it to a person. Since this was written in 1936 we had just gotten out of a world war. I can't help but think that this poem is related to that time. How lucky the tree is to have a pot to grow in is one of the lines in the poem, and this probably represents the Depression in America and people got by by not making a scene and just being thankful for what they had. The hands you love to touch could be related to the greediness people had and how Americans tried to get their hands on everything they could. Just like the tree being cut down at an early age, young children had to learn to deal with what little they had at a young age. This poem must definitely represent a period of history, and it's really neat how the author compares that with a stunted tree.